Iran central bank FX reserves down by 1.5 percent: Report

Iran’s central bank says its foreign exchange reserves are down 1.5 percent compared to last year.

The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) says its foreign exchange reserves have declined by 1.5 percent in June this year.

The CBI said foreign reserves stood at 4,527 trillion rials (nearly $40 billion) on June 21 this year, down from 4,594 trillion rials from the same date last year and up over 32 percent compared to June 2017.

However, the figures published in a report by the official IRNA agency showed that total foreign exchange reserves owned by the CBI and credit institutes other than official banks in Iran had risen to 9,245 trillion rials (nearly $82 billion), an increase of 13 percent compared to June 2018.

“A study of the situation of foreign assets of the country’s banking network shows it has increased over the past years,” said the report, adding that the group designated as Iran's banking network had held 8,188 trillion rials in foreign exchange reserves in June 2018.

The report did not elaborate on details of inflows and outflows into the reserves and how much of it had been used over the past year to service Iranian government's foreign debts.

The data came a day after the CBI said its foreign debts had decreased by around seven percent in just two months ending May 21.

The top Iranian lender said on Sunday that the current aggregate foreign debts were around $8.816 billion, down from $9.339 billion at the end of last Iranian calendar year ending March 20.

The surge in foreign exchange reserves held by the CBI and non-banking credit institutions comes despite sanctions imposed by the United States since November when Iran began to experience problems accessing revenues generated by oil exports.

The CBI has indicated that its reserves have remained mostly unaffected by the sanctions despite Washington’s claims that they have seriously hurt Iran’s ability to finance food imports and other domestic projects.

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